Reviews for They came to Japan

The average rating for They came to Japan based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-19 00:00:00 Millicent Sullivan Lesley Downer is amazing. A Londoner, her chosen field of expertise is all things Japanese. And the books she writes! If this one is any indication, they’re wonderfully entertaining. And inexpensive. She’s a Goodreads author, too... Ever read Shogun? I think by now Everyone has - or has seen the video. And what James Clavell did for my own ancient generation back in the seventies, Ms Downer is doing now for the younger folk. She shows us the doughty and ruggedly individualistic - stemming, naturally, from its insularity - character of Japan. And she writes fiction about Japan as well - the Age of the Shogun included - that must be pretty darned good, with her innate grasp of what goes into the fixings of a highly individual character. So she undertook to take on - alone and on foot - this fabled Japanese road into its deep north. Her degree of fitness must be pretty superb. So what is, exactly, the Narrow Road to the Deep North? If you said it’s a geographical metaphor for the Quest for Meaning, I think you’re right. And what’s the End of this Narrow Road? Why, obviously, forgetting about ALL our quests! Seeing into your true nature means seeing there is NO tangible true nature to the Self. We follow the quest to the end in order to forget about our self, because we will finally see all paths to our self have no meaning. There’s only empty, full, shocking, calming, ordinary, supernatural daily life. We’re stuck here. Take it like it is. But we will all keep going. Until we see this Sphinx, Reality’s, riddle really is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. It’s God’s. Period. You know, my longtime neighbour Mike keeps moving, too... but not metaphorically. Like Basho did, and as Ms Downer shows us SHE’S done - walking from Tokyo to the Northern Wilds of the island - since he’s retired, Mike has walked phenomenal distances alone EVERY DAY. He walks enthusiastically and energetically, with the added bonus of his genuinely gregarious affability towards the folks he meets on his journey. After years of this, of course, he’s developed both the leg musculature of a James Fixx and a deep, lasting annual summer tan. He’s got the energy of THREE of us stay-at-home bookworm introverts! Just so, Ms Downer keeps the reader’s energy up, - through every humorous twist and wry turn of that old LITERAL Narrow Road to the North. It holds you in its spell, as it did for her. And if you love Basho’s poetry and biography - evinced in HIS book by the same title - you’ll get plenty of that here. AND plenty of fascinating cultural and historical snapshots of Japan - Ancient... and Modern. As well as quite a few wryly amusing character studies of the sturdy Japanese folks she meets on her travels! It’s a very good book indeed, and I’ve given it Four Full Stars. And you know what else? The book is imbued throughout with an honest-to-goodness Zen sense of empty-hearted Freedom. The same freedom Basho must have tasted nearly half a Millenium ago. But... For you, I know, the Quest continues. As I guess it will - until that day you get to the ultimate kingdom of the North, and Franz Kafka’s Gatekeeper says to you: “Give it up!” And on that day we’ll ALL finally learn Total Humility.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-07-23 00:00:00 Anthony Merlo If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review. Basho: "On the Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Lesley Downer Doing things out of chronological sequence as I frequently do. Have just finished “On The Narrow Road To The Deep North” by Lesley Downer, a re-creation in 1989 of a journey made 300 years previously by Matsuo Basho, and I have now started on the latter, being the original. Basho was a traveller and poet whose Haiku (17 syllable poems) made him nationally famous in seventeenth century Japan and whose travels provide an insight both into urban and remote rural life in the country during that period.